We met at 7am on a balmy morning at road's end in Cedar
Grove. I was really looking forward to not having to camp on
snow for the first time this year - it was the 10th of August
after all, and Cedar Grove trailheads had been reported to
have a higher snow line than most. Participants were Steve
Eckert (leader), Karl Josephs, Suzanne Remien, and Aaron
Schuman (coleader).

The rangers here insist on each member of the group hearing
a pep talk about bears and fires and all that, but they were
not there at the scheduled opening time. We got a somewhat
later start, but still completed the 15+ miles to the far
end of East Lake by 6pm.

Bear boxes abound at East Lake, as do the bears! We watched
two walk through camp before dark, and Steve got to test his
new bear-resistant cannister when another kicked it around
several hours later. If you want to test your technique,
this is the place: We heard stories of properly hung food
being taken, food hung over a cliff being pulled up and
taken, even a bear following his favorite targets to a new
campsite when they tried to get out of range.

The next morning we left the trail between Reflection and
East lakes, heading between the Minster and Ericsson Crags
to drop our packs for an attempt on Deerhorn. We never did
match up the route with what we saw: This mountain is
"feature rich and view deficient" according to Karl. You
never know if you're really in the right chute! Two of us
got close enough to see the twin peaks, but it was late in
the afternoon and it was getting vertical enough to want a
rope so we backed off.

Retrieving the packs, we camped below Harrison Pass, which
was climbed easily the next morning. Crampons were not used,
and all chose to stay on the rock except one fool who wanted
a little practice chopping steps on steep icy snow. I sure
wished I had put on the crampons by the top, but the runout
was safe and it was good practice.

Ericsson was a straightforward climb (3rd class from the
east side) and has stunning views into several drainages.
The top has one or two tricky moves, but nothing too bad.
Aaron and Suzanne then headed around Caltech Peak by way
of Lake South America. This route is very easy walking, and
seems to have few visitors even though the snow is gone.
Steve and Karl stomped up the class 2 slopes of Gregorys
Monument, the south summit of Mt. Stanford, after agreeing
to meet the advance team below Forester pass by the next
morning at the latest (full moon and all).

From the south summit, the route to the higher north summit
does not really match either Roper or Secor: Roper says to
stay "on the east side of the classic knife-edge ridge",
which is fine advice for about 10 feet. Secor mentions the
chockstone and suggests descending to a ledge on the east
side, but forgets to mention that those two things don't
happen next to each other! The ledge starts quite a ways
north of the chockstone, and drops sharply downward before
turning up again to bring you back to what becomes a true
knife edge ridge where the climbing gets much easier.

We agreed that this climb has some of everything, from
chickenheads and cracks to chimneys and even the chance to
crawl along a ledge under a low overhang. It is tougher than
you might expect, because on the way UP to the peak most of
the tough moves are done DOWNCLIMBING onto or along the ledge.
Coming back is much easier and you can't get off route. I
thought the climb was more rewarding than Ericsson, but the
views are not as good as you might expect from a 13963 foot peak.

The Stanford crew never caught the advance team, and made
camp separately about 8:30pm along the John Muir Trail just
west of Diamond Mesa. We all got together the next morning
at the lakes below Forester Pass, where the advance team
had frozen overnight. It was cold enough for toe heaters in
the boots, and we had to chip through the overnight ice to
pump water out of the lake.

Climbing to Forester Pass (13200 feet) we encountered some snow,
but the trail is clear for the most part. The Polemonium is
in bloom and abundant enough that you don't have to lean
over to smell it. From Forester, we hopped over the hill
to Ski Mountaineer's Pass and headed up Junction Peak. There
is no clearly good choice between these passes, but the rock
is more stable higher up (as we found out on the way back).

Junction Peak has two summits, and we had little trouble
getting to the higher north peak by skirting many towers and
ridges on the right south side of the main west ridge. If you
cut too far south too soon, you'll wind up in a slabby bowl,
but it's pretty obvious how to get around and there are no
exposed moves required. From the high point, which has no
register, we started to wonder if the other summit was
closer to the junction of the ridges (and therefore might
be the TRUE peak). I did the airy traverse just to see, and
found a small film can with two scraps of paper. I returned
it to the USGS benchmark on the higher peak by way of ledges
below and west of the airy ridge. Anyone planning to climb
Junction Peak should take a better register!

Still on our fourth day, we hoisted our packs again and headed
back down into Bug Land (we tried to do Manhattan Transfer
and Paul Simon take-offs on BugLand, but none are worth
mentioning here - or did I just mention them?). Camp was just
east of East Vidette along the JMT. We stayed away from the
crowds around the bear boxes, choosing to hang our trash and
stuff everyone's remaining food in my bear cannister. No
visitors this night, aside from clouds of mosquitos so thick
they got stuck on your spoon while you were trying to eat.

Suzanne had found a log jam across the creek at just the right
place to climb slabs to the bowl south east of East Vidette,
so Karl and I headed out of camp around 6am to climb it. A
nice easy finish to a pretty hard trip. Roper forgets to
mention the scree chutes that Secor notes, so he calls it
class 3. Secor, on the other hand, seems to imply that the
chute goes all the way to the top (which it does not). You
can loop around onto the north face for the last few feet
and pretend it's a class 2 climb without too much of a stretch,
but we stayed on the solid rock for the ascent. If you go
straight up from the chute, you're on class 4 getting to the
peak from where you hit the ridge.

The hike out was about 18 miles with packs, which pushed us
to a 10 hour day including the peak climb. Signs along the
trail show the distance not changing after over an hour of
hiking, so trust the trail guides and maps, not the signs!
The showers at Cedar Grove had long lines, so we all jumped
in the stream. The advance team apparently was video taped
by tourists, but the peak baggers had the stream to themselves.

Looking back on the trip, the variety was greater than I
expected. Each peak had its own type of rock: Deerhorn is
fractured with Hail Mary holds everywhere, Ericsson is mostly
boulders stacked on each other, Stanford has a single long
ledge that lowers the climb from class 4-5 to class 3, Junction
is a little more slabby, and East Vidette is rapidly eroding
granite that looks almost like sandstone in places. The valleys
and plants below each are just as distinct, making for a very
interesting loop. I highly recommend it, and would like to
hear from anyone who knows the secret class 3 route up Deerhorn!